Kidney Recipient Contracts HIV from Transplant

In somewhat frightening news, an organ recipient who received a kidney in a New York City hospital contracted HIV from the organ.

Yeah, we're kind of speechless ourselves. We knew it was possible, but we, along with the rest of the world, thought it was avoidable through testing.

The New York State Department of Health is telling the media that the donor tested negative ten weeks before he donated his kidney, but had unprotected sex shortly after. It was then that he contracted the virus. Unfortunately, he wasn't retested before his kidney was transplanted into the recipient.

Most HIV testing is done by checking the blood for antibodies the immune system produces to fight off the virus. In most cases, it takes anywhere from two to eight weeks for the body to produce enough antibodies for the test to detect them. But in some cases, it can take up to six months! That makes this case even more terrifying. Even if the donor had been retested, it's possible he still would have gotten a negative result.

New York health officials are urging hospital administrators, organ transplant directors, and transplant coordinators to do follow-up testing of all donors before using their organs, tissues or blood. They've also suggested using nucleic acid testing, which can detect HIV within eight to ten days.

Dr. Elizabeth Donegan, a professor of clinical anesthesia at the University of California, San Francisco, told ABC News that the New York case would generate considerable discussion about “ways to make sure it doesn't happen again.” Given that the New York donor became infected through unsafe sex, she said, “They're going to need to heavily counsel these donors.”